Jerry Brown revises local-control plan

FISCAL CRISIS

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Responding to concerns that it would lead to a public safety nightmare, Gov. Jerry Brown has scaled back a key part of his budget proposal that calls for more criminal justice services to be shifted to the local level.

Under the revised proposal presented to lawmakers Monday - the most detailed to date - fewer prison inmates could be moved from state lockups to local jails, the state Division of Juvenile Justice would not be entirely eliminated, and local fire agencies would take over responsibility for only a fraction of the wildland areas originally contemplated.

"The revisions to our proposal are really based on discussions with local officials, and particularly on public safety concerns," Diane Cummins, an adviser to Brown, told the Legislature's budget conference committee Monday.

The Democratic governor's plan, known as realignment, ultimately seeks to lower government costs and improve efficiency by allowing county governments to deliver more services. The governor's office hopes that by moving more nonviolent offenders to county jails, for example, inmates will receive better rehabilitation services at lower cost, and will be less likely to re-offend. For the plan to move forward, voters would have to approve an amendment to the state Constitution in June.

Proposed changes

Among the changes presented by the governor's office Monday:

-- To address concerns that some serious, violent offenders would end up in county jails, the governor's office will add more crimes to the eligibility list for state incarceration under realignment. Previously, Brown excluded about 40 crimes, including felony domestic violence, assaulting a police officer, felony stalking, solicitation for murder, and human trafficking from the state's list of serious, violent crimes. Under the new proposal, those crimes would still result in a state prison sentence.

-- Instead of asking local fire departments to take on all the responsibility for fighting fires - and providing emergency aid - in wildland areas where homes have sprung up in recent decades, the governor's office is proposing handing control of just a fraction of the areas to six local agencies that are already contracting with state fire officials to provide fire protection services there.

-- Instead of eliminating the Division of Juvenile Justice and shifting all youth offenders to county facilities, the new plan would let counties decide once a year if they want to contract with juvenile justice to house some offenders. Advocates had expressed concern that without a state option, prosecutors would charge more juveniles as adults in order to keep them out of local facilities.

By the 2014-15 fiscal year, according to the governor's office, the changes will result in 38,000 fewer people in state prisons, and as much as $2 billion in savings to the corrections department's annual budget.

Praise for plan

"I'm very encouraged," he said. "This will ease overcrowding (in state prisons) very significantly, and take care of a number of other issues simultaneously."

Questions remain, however. Local officials, such as county sheriffs and district attorneys, have concerns that the plan will leave them on the hook for delivering more services without the resources to pay for them. Republicans voiced similar worries this week, noting that the main financing mechanism for realignment - a five-year extension of some taxes that would also have to be approved by voters in June - will dry up after half of a decade.

Amendment language

On Monday, lawmakers from both parties said they need to see the language of a constitutional amendment before they can decide whether to support the governor's plan. Some Republicans said they have serious misgivings, noting that in the past, the state has consistently asked local governments to take on more responsibility for delivering services without giving them the funding to do so. The amendment is necessary because the responsibilities of the state and the counties are enshrined in the Constitution.

"As the proposal becomes more definitive, my concerns are elevated rather than decreased," said Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber (Tehama County). "We're going to be putting issues before voters where they have no idea what they are authorizing, and nor do members of the Legislature. ... Funding is a huge concern."

Nielsen also warned that if the transfer of inmates to local jails moves forward, counties will eventually face the same court challenges that the state prison system has. Currently, California's prison health care is under the control of a federal receiver because of lawsuits over inadequate health care.

Leno called that a non-issue, noting that county jails have not faced similar challenges over their ability to provide health care to offenders.

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